Ukip 'in European offer to Tories'

Wednesday 28 January 2009 00:11 BST

Ukip offered not to fight the Tories at the next general election in return for a pledge to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty even after it was ratified, the eurosceptic party's new leader has revealed.

Ex-Tory peer Lord Pearson of Rannoch said he took the proposed deal to the Conservative leader in the upper house, Lord Strathclyde, after Ukip beat Labour into third place in this June's European elections.

Last month Mr Cameron dropped his promise of a national vote when the treaty was finally ratified by all EU member states - angering the new Ukip leader as well as many of his own backbenchers.

Lord Pearson, who was elected by party members on Friday, was acting on behalf of predecessor Nigel Farage who has stepped down to concentrate on his own general election campaign to oust Commons Speaker John Bercow and his role as an MEP.

The peer told the Times that he had offered to "disband" the party - but a spokesman insisted that in fact the deal had only ever involved calling off its general election campaign.

"We made that offer but we didn't get an answer," he said. "I'm so angry with them now."

Shadow Europe minister Mark Francois said: "We don't make policy on the basis of secret deals with other parties; we decide our policies on the basis of what is right for the country.

"As we have said, a made-up referendum after ratification would be pointless."